Chandigarh, October 12
Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal was today suspended from the party soon after the disciplinary committee of the Shiromani Akali Dal made a recommendation to this effect to the party president.

Suspended ostensibly for “anti-party” activities and for speaking out against the Deputy Chief Minister, also his cousin, Sukhbir Singh Badal, the Finance Minister has also been served a show-cause notice and asked to appear before the party in person on October 20 at the party office to explain his conduct.

The suspension, however, caught political circles by surprise because the disciplinary committee was earlier scheduled to meet on Wednesday, when the Finance Minister was expected to address a press conference in Chandigarh. The SAD disciplinary committee, it was felt, would be in a better position to decide on Manpreet’s future after he played his cards.

What hastened the exercise is still not clear but soon after the disciplinary committee met this afternoon for one and a half hours and forwarded its recommendation, party secretary Daljit Singh Cheema issued a four-line communique declaring that the party had decided to suspend Manpreet Badal.

The finance minister was in New Delhi on Tuesday and was scheduled to meet the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. While his telephone remained switched off, reports trickling in from the national capital held that the meeting did take place at 7.30 pm. There was no ‘immediate reaction’ to his suspension as Manpreet, say his camp followers, does not want to rush into replying.

Tuesday’s developments indicate that the hardliners within SAD have had their way. They have been arguing against hosting a Trojan horse and the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister have apparently concurred with the assessment. The Badals have gone by the book, got the Chief Secretary and the Finance Secretary to contradict the Finance Minister on the loan-waiver issue, got the Jathedars to rally round them, had the party’s disciplinary committee deliberate and make recommendations; and now the suspension and the show-cause have certainly made Manpreet Badal’s continuance in the cabinet untenable.

The party’s decision to take a tough stand on Manpreet became clear on Tuesday when the party decided to pre-empt his press conference on Wednesday by preponing the meeting of the disciplinary committee, which was earlier scheduled to be held after Manpreet’s press conference tomorrow. Today’s meeting chaired by disciplinary committee chairman and minister Ranjit Singh Brahmpura released a draft that sources said was being prepared since this morning recommending the suspension of the finance minister.

Within an hour of the recommendation to Sukhbir Badal, Dr Daljit Singh Cheema released a four-line communiqué saying the SAD had decided to suspend the finance minister from the party. The disciplinary committee came out with a unanimous recommendation. It took Manpreet to task on a number of issues. Besides holding that the finance minister was indulging in anti-party activities, the committee also claimed that such actions were part of a conspiracy designed to damage the image of the party and help its opponents.

The committee members, consisting of Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Tota Singh and Gurdev Singh Badal, also indicted him for passing “insulting remarks” against the party President (Sukhbir) as well as members of the party’s core committee.

A formal show cause notice along with newspaper clippings of statements made by him has been sent to him. The committee also made it clear that if the finance minister continues to indulge in political posturing after today, the party would take it as his reluctance to abide by party discipline. In that eventuality, it is implied, the party will be free to take suitable action even before October 20, the deadline for him to reply to the show-cause.

Party leaders, meanwhile, left it to Manpreet’s discretion on meeting the Union finance inister. While Dhindsa said Manpreet could meet Mukherjee as he was still the finance minister, party secretary Cheema said this was a question of morals. All committee members were however clear that it was the CM’s prerogative whether Manpreet could remain a minister or not. Committee member Tota Singh while talking to TNS admitted that Manpreet had been given a long rope so that sufficient time could be given to him to make amends after approaching the chief minister. Tota Singh said the committee had postponed any decision on Manpreet yesterday precisely for this reason. He said unfortunately Manpreet instead of working towards a rapprochement issued another statement yesterday evening, embroiling coalition partners the BJP in the ongoing controversy.